Chicago's WGNTV might have wanted to hit incognito mode before it filmed a smartphone user for a news segment, with a Google search for 'expungement' instead showing up bookmarked porn website Pornhub.

The report focused on web-based app Expunge.io, which was designed by a group of students to help people get minor offences and juvenile arrests struck from their records.

But as the local TV report tried to demonstrate just how easy the site was to access online using a smartphone, the first two letters of the search query 'expungement' instead brought up a shortcut to the interviewee's porn site of choice in the browsing history.

The oversight caused much mirth on Reddit, where it quickly jumped to the top of the site's homepage.

"It's the perfect texture for running, very low impact and it’s dry snow so your feet don’t get wet," she told KOIN News, only to take a fall just moments after the interview as the camera tracked her.